Drugged Driving on the Rise in the U.S.

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An increasing number of Americans are driving while impaired, especially under the influence of marijuana and painkillers.

Drunk driving is a big no-no—and most people know that. But what about drugged driving? Newly released figures indicate that driving under the influence of drugs is on the rise.

Researchers
at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health assessed
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data from 1999 to
2010 and found that 24.8 percent of 23,591 drivers who were killed
within one hour of a crash were on drugs. Of them, 39.7 percent had
alcohol in their systems.

During this 10-year period, the number
of non-alcohol drug-related accidents rose from 16.6 percent to 28.3
percent—for marijuana alone, it went up from 4.2 percent to 12.2
percent.

The alcohol-related crashes involved a higher percentage
of men than women, but the rise in marijuana-related crashes was
reported for both sexes and in all age groups.

The data only
include fatal car crashes in six states: California, Hawaii, Illinois,
New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. The researchers noted
that it's possible for a driver to test positive for marijuana in a
blood test up to one week after use.

Guohua Li, M.D., DrPH, a
Columbia professor, said that given the increasing availability of
marijuana and the ongoing prescription opioid epidemic, understanding
the role of controlled substances in motor vehicle crashes is important
for the health of the general public.

A
2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that 10.3 million
people 12 years old older—or 3.9 percent of adolescents and adults—had
driven under the influence of illicit drugs within a year of taking the
survey. That same year, about 29.1 million people, or 11.2 percent, had
driven under the influence of alcohol at least once.

High Drivers Take to the Roads

Joanne
Brady, a Ph.D. candidate in epidemiology and the lead author of the
Columbia study, found that there was an increase in drivers testing
positive for marijuana between 2007 and 2013.

She also found an
increase in fatal crashes in California, where medical marijuana became
legal in 1996, as well as a growing use of marijuana by patients being
treated in Colorado healthcare facilities.

“The marked increase in
its prevalence as reported in the present study is likely germane to
the growing decriminalization of marijuana,” said Brady.

“It’s
hard to pinpoint exactly why there’s an increase trend in drugged
driving, and those analyses warrant further investigation, but one
possibility may be an increase in the use and/or access to these drugs,”
added Noelle C. Anastasio, Ph.D., of the University of Texas Center for
Addiction Research.

Will Decriminalization Lead to More Crashes?

Over
the past 17 years, 20 states and Washington, D.C. have enacted
legislation, and four more states have legislation pending, to
decriminalize marijuana for medical use.

Brady said that despite
laws that prohibit drugged driving, it’s still possible that
decriminalization may result in more crashes involving marijuana.

According
to the Washington State Patrol, 745 motorists tested positive for
marijuana during the first half of 2013. So far, marijuana is approved
for recreational use only in Colorado and Washington.

“I believe
that more in-depth studies on the effects of marijuana on driving and
marijuana-involved crashes in those states in which it is legalized,
both recreationally and medically, need to be completed,”
Anastasio said.

Li said the increase in drugged driving is
primarily facilitated by marijuana and opioids, the use of which nearly
tripled between 1999 and 2010.

“This study did not correlate
legalization of marijuana for medical use to the increase in drugged
driving fatalities,” Li said, though he added that other studies have.
Li said that the use of opioid painkillers has been on the rise since
the early 1990s.

Is Education the Solution?

Jane
Metrik, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Brown University’s Center for
Alcohol and Addiction Studies, said marijuana users may not be aware of
its harmful effects when they get behind the wheel.

“Research
shows that believing that driving after smoking marijuana is dangerous
may protect people from driving when high. People who held those beliefs
were less likely to drive while high,” Metrik said.

“Perceived
danger and social norms are very influential in predicting high
driving," Metrik added. "There is a general trend in increased public
acceptance of marijuana along with perceived lack of negative
consequences from use.”

Li agrees that more people are driving drugged because they’re not aware of how harmful it can be.

“Unfortunately,
this ongoing epidemic has not been widely recognized,” said Li, adding
that the number of fatal crashes from drugs other than alcohol will be
higher than alcohol-related fatalities by 2020 if this trend continues.